“The only aspect of Hughes’ start which we didn’t like was his velocity. Assuming the YES guns are accurate, his fastball sat at a less-than-impressive 89-91 all night (he did command it well though). However, it was cold and it was his first start of the year. Don’t sound any alarms yet, but keep a watchful eye.”

That’s “trying to get people riled up?”

He clearly has an ax to grind and is bitter Cashman let his firm go.

But Pags main goal with an article like the one on Hughes is for high volume sites like RAB to write a reaction to the article and to link to it.

Phil Hughes should be in AA? The only point of that kind of nonsense is to drive traffic to his site and to get people talking about Mike Pags who no one in baseball would otherwise care about.

And unfortunately these tactics work - here we are talking about him.

http://www.nydailynews.com/spo.....anges.html

Amid all the “Who was the scout who recommended Igawa?” outrage being directed at Cashman, Pagliarulo, who heads up the international scouting service Turf Dirt, has been at the forefront. A recent blog on Pagliarulo’s Web site contained this scathing indictment of Cashman’s job performance: “Igawa could potentially be one of the worst free-agent signings ever - in Mike Hampton territory. Dare we say another Pavano? At least Hampton did have stretches of decent production after he left Colorado. Igawa, on the other hand, might never be better than what he is now - a Triple-A pitcher with an attitude who is at best a back-end starter on a second division team. The Yankees chose not to use (Cashman’s) Japan consultants, who told him to walk away from Igawa. The consultants knew about the Igawa holdout in spring training 2005 in Japan and how Igawa then laid down that year and wasn’t productive at all. Important information that is interpreted through consulting and difficult to put in scouting reports.”

The report goes on to list Igawa as one of the top 10 pitchers in Japan. Nothing about any holdout or attitude problems.